ZYGOMYCETES. 



97 



The unicellular mycelium (Fig. 78) of the Mucoracese branches 

 abundantly, and lives, generally, as a saprophyte on all sorts of 

 dead organic remains. Some of these Fungi are known. to be cap- 

 able of producing alcoholic fermentation, in common with the Sac- 

 charomyces. This applies especially to Chlamydomucor racemosus 

 (Mucor racemosus}, when grown in a saccharine solution, and de- 

 prived of oxygen; the mycelium, under such conditions, becomes 

 divided by transverse walls into a large number of small cells. 



FIG. 78. Mucor m'iccdo. A mycelium which has sprung from one spore, whose position 

 is marked by the * : a, b, c are three sporangia in different stages of development ; a is 

 the youngest one, as yet only a short, thick, erect branch ; b is commencing to form a 

 sporangium which is larger in c, but not yet separated from its stalk. 



Many of these swell out into spherical or club-shaped cells, and 

 when detached from one another become chlamydospores, which 

 abstrict new cells of similar nature (Fig. 79). These chlamydo- 

 spores were formerly erroneously termed " mucor-yeast," but they 

 must not be confounded with the yeast-conidia (page 94). They 

 are shortened hypha?, and are not conidia of definite size, shape, 

 and point of budding. Oidia are also found in Clilamydomucor. 

 w. B. H 



